For the 11th time in the past four years, a human foot in a sport shoe was found on a Pacific Northwest shoreline.

Foot No. 11 was found Tuesday near a marina in an inlet called False Creek, police in Vancouver, British Columbia, said. Foul play was not suspected because there was no sign of trauma, coroner Stephen Fonseca said in a report from CNN affiliate CBC.

â€śThese human remains did not show any evidence of trauma whatsoever,â€ť CBC quoted Fonseca as saying.

DNA samples from foot No. 11 will be compared to DNA obtained from family members in missing persons cases to try to establish an identity, he said.

So who do the feet belong to and how did they meet their demise?

One foot, found in August 2007 on Jedediah Island, British Columbia, was identified as coming from a deceased man whose family did not want further details released, according to a report in the Vancouver Sun.

â€śWe have an awful lot of people missing in our waters, either from accidental cases or people who deliberately entered the water,â€ť the website quotes Anderson as saying. â€śWeâ€™re talking four years and 11 feet. Thatâ€™s really not that many at all.â€ť

And if the shoe floats?

University of British Columbia materials engineering professor Anoush Poursartip tells vancouver.24hrs he has a theory on that.

â€śThe polymers used in running shoes are chosen partially for their light weight. This means the shoe has significant buoyancy,â€ť he told the website.

So the shoes are dragging the feet to the surface but leaving the rest of the body in the depths?

â€śIâ€™m not sure I buy the theory itâ€™s because the shoe floats,â€ť Mendelson said in the "Canada AM" interview.

here is a great link that explains the feet: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salish_Sea_human_foot_discoveries
Apparently they bodies have been decomposing a while (the shoes are all manufacture years before the feet were discovered) underwater and they just detach and the shoe makes them float. I know some people wear their shoes for many years but in order for a foot to fall off naturally to decay the body has to be dead a while. I'd be way more skeptical if the shoes were recently manufactured.

You have to look at a few factors. First, all of the shoes were running shoes. This makes sense – running shoes float very well. Boots, leather shoes, and so forth do not float. They sink. Second, you have to realize that very rarely are these 'fresh' feet they are finding. Most of the time they are skeletal remains and only from the ankle down. Third, you have to understand what the currents are like in that area. Basically, anything that goes in the water around there has a good chance of washing up in that inlet. So what is going on? Someone falls into the water – either accidentally, suicide, or foul play. Their body sinks to the bottom and decomposes. The tendons holding the ankles to the shin deteriorates and eventually separates. The skeletal remains of the feet – inside of the buoyant running shoes floats to the surface and currents bring it to that inlet. It's not a huge mystery.

Its not a bad theory, but if the ankle tendons and joints are gone, why aren't the foot tendons? The foot has over 200 bones in it. Once the those bones start coming apart, I don't think the foot would stay in the shoe long.

There are only 26 bones in the human foot, not 200. The body has a total of 206 bones.

Consider that the remainder of the foot is reasonably well protected from the environment compared to the rest of the body. It would be better protected from scavengers and other factors (currents, water temperature, etc). Like Chris said, its likely that the feet are fresh and because the shoe has protected the foot, the tendons and flesh of the foot would experience slowed decomposition.

What does "no signs of trauma" actually mean in this case? That the feet weren't deliberately severed from the leg or bitten away by animals/fish? Does that mean they rotted off the body? Is that trauma? I mean, you have feet, foot bones in shoes, and the bones are obviously severed if you don't have legs along with. What is the nature and condition of the separation point?

Trauma = removal by force, tools, etc. That is not the case here. the feet are becoming detached by way of decomposition in water. As for the source, the tsunami theory is plausible, and so is the issue with illegal migrant ships coming over from China. A few years ago, about a dozen rusty "snakehead ships" arrived in Vancouver full of hundreds of illegals. These ships were practically half-sunk by the time they entered Canadian waters. Would not be surprised if there are one or two out there which did not make the full journey, and the remains are making their way to the shores now. And to those who keep questioning the "all in the same place" angle... we're talking sites which are up and down a few hundred miles of BC & Washington coastline. It's hardly localized to one place.

I live in Vancouver (born and raised) and our coast is beautiful, but can be treacherous for people who are not careful. There are a lot of boats out on the water and many people have been lost at sea over the years, including people who take their own lives, so although it is strange as to how many feet in running shoes they've found, I'm not that surprized. Most of the time, the foot is so decomposed that it is difficult to determine, at first glance, what the nationality was and if the deceased has no DNA on file with police, it pretty much stays a mystery until all missing persons have been ruled out. More details and history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salish_Sea_human_foot_discoveries

I would think a family member would be able to identify the shoe. How long does DNA take? How many missing persons reports are there for the area? And why only Vancouver area? Why not waters in NY or Louisiana, Atlantic Canad or Mexico? Especially over the past decade. What brands of shoes? How many unrecoverd bodies are there from boating accidents? I think this could be Gang related or possibly serial killer. Several men and one woman so far. The poor "souls" that once walked in these shoes have not necessarily been reported missing..... likely because of their lifestye. There was a Ferrie that went down a few years ago did they recover all the bodies?

to solve the myster/missing person, look at the shoe and determine the year it was made. from there determine if anyone is missing during/around that year. canandian police don't know what they are doing.

Believe me, the Canadian police know what they're doing. Objects can float thousands of miles in the ocean. Those feet could easily float from the US coastal area to our Canadian coast, so if a US citizen goes "missing" in, lets say, Seattle, I'm pretty sure a missing persons report won't be filed in Vancouver, BC. Also, I still wear shoes I bought two years ago and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person in the world to do that, so checking the maker/year of the shoe will not help that much.

I thought I read at one time, something about an airplane occupied by a number of athletes going down in the region. That would explain the running/athletic shoes and the disarticulation of the feet if they happen to be dangling from bodies suspended by seat belts. Sound gorey but could be a theory.

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